Name: "Toxic" Vince Kalamity
Age: 38
Rank: Rear Admiral
Species: Human
Occupation: Swordsman/Doctor
Allegiance: Marine
Home Village/Ocean: Grand Line
Appearance: Vince's last name describes his appearance very well. Most of his head is covered by a coating of lustreless, gray-blue metal, a single pitch-black, round glass plate sitting over what would be his left eye; there is no impression for where the nose would be. His neck, too, is surrounded by thin, flexible bands of the same metal. His lower jaw, however, is exposed, the skin dark brown and horribly burnt, no lip hiding his crooked, yellow lower teeth.
His chest is exposed, revealing a more of the same blue-grey metal, in segmented plates to cover all the major muscles of his chest and abdomen, the area between them covered by flexible black cloth. Over his shoulders is draped a standard marine officer's coat; unlike most marines he has his arm in the left sleeve, a thin, black-gloved hand visible extending past the cuff. His right sleeve has been removed and sown over; there is no right arm to wear it. On the back of the coat is only the Kanji for "Absolute" - the word justice is not printed below it.
Around his waist he wears a trio of thick, black leather belts, from which which hangs a loose white sarong, hiding his legs when he's not moving. His legs are thin, as frail looking as the rest of his body, covered by the same black cloth and metal plates as his torso. From just below his knee down are matte black leather boots with thick jointed metal soles and buckles up the entire length.
Across his back are three swords; a greatsword, an over-size trench knife, and a katana. Only the katana is sheathed. The first three are hung in a row, with their hilts jutting up over his left shoulder. A double-bladed sword hangs on his right side, held in place along his body by metal loops in his belts.
History: Born Vincent Pryma, Kalamity never had much patience. At a very early age he learned that might makes right, becoming a well-known bully in his neighborhood and bringing shame to his parents. He suffered his first arrest to local constables at the age of nine, after leading a bunch of local kids stray and forcefully robbing a blacksmith in broad daylight to satisfy his other vice; he coveted and horded weapons of every kind.
Though Vincent was a problem child, his parents never gave up on him, doing everything they could to right his wrongs and teach him the path of honesty, friendship, and love. After some time, it seemed they got through to the child; he eventually calmed down, attended school, and became a fairly model child to the amazement of all the villagers. Vincent excelled at everything he did, but nothing so much as swordsmanship; after proving himself trustworthy, he was given a single sword by the very blacksmith he had robbed earlier in his youth. He trained at the local dojo with all of his free time, and by the age of 16 was able to best nearly every adult in the village.
Channeling the anger and passion that had driven him to acts of violence and whatnot in the past, he eventually began his own training, expanding upon the teachings he'd taken from the dojo by trial and error, developing the roots of what would later define his sword style. He was deep in the hills of his home island practicing one day when pirates raided his village, reducing almost everything to ashes and rubble, leaving nobody but the few who were out in the woods at the time alive. Vincents parents, his siblings, his sensei, all of them had been killed.
Upon returning to the village in ruins, Vincent was immediately found by one of the few survivors, a grizzled old woodsman named Kaleb. The man took the child to his cabin in the woods and explained what had happened. The old man had never known tact and delivered the news bluntly. Unable to cope with such a massive change all at once, Vincent felt nothing. He was not sad, not angry. There was no burning desire for vengeance, no crumbling of the world he knew into spiraling despair. Only a gaping void remained; the first 16 years of his life had simply vanished, and he accepted that.
After a time, a ship arrived to take the survivors to another island. As soon as they arrived, Vincent struck out on his own. Rather than be assigned a foster family, as he was told he would be on the ship ride over, he built his own rough hut some ways from the nearest town. The island he on being the size it was, there was nothing to stop him from performing odd acts of crime here and there to get by; nobody noticed, and if they did it was easy enough to avoid being caught. One day, in the midst of scheming one such crime, Vincent inadvertently ran into and fought a local bandit, subduing him with ease. He was surprised to find that the man had a bounty, on dropping him off at the nearest authority's office. In this way he earned his first paycheck as a bounty hunter.
Deciding that bounty hunting was both more profitable and engaging than petty crime, Vincent immediately switched professions. He spent the next three years of his life hunting down every last bounty head on the island, as well as any that wandered into port. He eventually gained praise and reknown, earning the nickname "Miracle Cure", as crime became a thing of the past under his determined, profit-driven protection.
Some time after his 19th birthday, though, Vincent realized he was dealing with the small time. Without so much as a word he chartered a small ship and left the island to it's own devices. For another year or so he roamed between the islands of North Blue, hunting bigger and nastier bounty heads, earning a name and reputation as "Poison" Vince, so named for the swiftness and lethal efficiency with which he tracked and dispatched his prey.
Two years later, in a bar gathering information, Vincent overheard the loud and boisterous boastings of a young, brash pirate captain. The man claimed to have burnt down as many villages as there were stars in the sky. Offhandedly, just to add weight to his story, he rattled off a list of a few prize sackings; among them was the town Vincent grew up in. As the pirate and his drinking buddies laughed, a torrent of thoughts raced through the young hunter's head.
Right before him was the man who'd stolen the better part of his life. Memories rushed back from the time before that, memories of youth and crime and power. Memories that he knew were not his, because the pirate not a stone's throw away had taken them. Memories that he knew were of his life, but belonged to somebody else. Might makes right. Those with the power to take succeed; that was the lesson the pirate was teaching him. If he couldn't take back the memories, he didn't deserve to have them. Resolved, Vincent drew his sword, the sword he'd been given by the blacksmith this man had killed, and charged at him.
The resulting explosion destroyed the bar and killed almost everybody inside. A crazed look in his eyes, the pirate captain walked from the rubble of the bar towards the severely injured bounty hunter. Vincent had never seen a devil fruit used before, but recognized the insane power instantly from stories he had heard. Dragging himself out of the wreckage of the neighboring building he'd been blasted into, "Poison" Vince approached his dangerous new prey with silent resolve.
When the marines arrived several hours later, half of the town laid in ruins, fires raging everywhere and threatening to destroy the remaining buildings. Just as the marines had organized a special unit to delve into the inferno and locate the perpetrator, Vincent emerged.
His entire body was charred and black, his right eye missing, no hair left on his head. Scraps of clothing hung from the ruined remains of a once powerful youthful body. Steam still rose from his burnt flesh, blood running freely from cracks everywhere, all over his skin. His left arm was gone as well, but more alarming yet was what his right arm held; the head of the notorious pirate who had destroyed his hometown, destroyed this town and countless others. Vincent had taken back his memories, his life. He'd taken back more, though; his were the memories, lives, legacies...the pasts of every man, woman, and child that pirate had destroyed. Just before his mortality caught up with him and brought him under, Vincent felt the happiest he'd ever felt in his life.
When he awoke, it was to a world defined by pain. Pain flooded out his senses, became light and sound and feeling and taste and smell. Over the next couple of years, he learned how to focus through the pain, to communicate with the world beyond it. It was slow, but soon he was able to speak and hear and understand, and the doctors told him of his fate since the day he brought down a man nobody else dared to and crawled back out of the burning pits of hell to deliver his head.
Stories of his strength and resilience had brought him to the attention of a renowned marine scientist. He'd been given the best medical treatment the world had to offer, had all the damaged parts replaced with durable new metal ones. When he was healed, he would be stronger, more resilient, more deadly. He had become a living weapon of the marines.
At first the thought ate away at him, churned and boiled in his brain as he laid prostrate, immobile and unable to do anything but speak in the marine hospital. The realization that the brief victory that he had won - the rush of taking back what was his and all that wasn't - had been taken from him just as quickly as he'd taken it from the pirate was too much for him to bear. Between the agony of his wrecked body and the torment of his loss, trapped inside a sessile shell of a body, drove Vincent to the brink of insanity.
Vincent was past 23 when the doctor who'd requisitioned his broken body as if he were no more than some lab animal came to visit him. It had been a long time since his body had fully healed and adapted to the machinery, but he was still unable to move. The scientist tried to make small talk with Vincent, tried to find out why he couldn't move. It had been a long time since he'd spoken to anyone. He remained silent for the entire conversation, and several thereafter. Eventually, however, he would speak, when the scientist told him that he had a way to stop the pain.
Without second thought, Vincent instantly accepted. He was told that he'd forevermore serve the World Government as a marine; this did not affect his decision. Smiling, the man held out a strange looking purple fruit over Vincent's lipless mouth and told him to take a bite. Having been fed intravenously for years and silent for months, his jaw was weak. It was all he could do to pierce the fruit's thick skin. A single drop of indescribably foul, bitter juice ran down from the fruit and wet his tongue. Instantly, Vincent felt the change.
In the following months he learned to use the powers he'd gained that day to cure his pain once and for all, flooding his body with a neurotoxin that shut down his pain receptors. Soon after he could move around. Within a month he was out on the field, testing his new powers in the heat of battle. His new, modified body adapted to the changes it had undergone, and he learned how to use his devil fruit to compliment his already formidable sword skills. Before a year had passed his name had been spread in the local divisions. Vincent took on a new last name, and earned with it a new title: almost overnight he had become "Toxic" Vince Kalamity.
Personality: Vince is a stern, quiet individual most of the time. Over his many long years of service in the marines, he's found a balance between his desire to reclaim the lives of others and service to the marines. Through their cloak of authority he may take the life of any fugitive, furthering his metaphysical quest, while at the same time performing a service that furthers his influence and rank. He is cold and efficient; he enjoys his work.
Over time, largely as a result of the insanity that befell him during his hospitalization, he's developed an odd sense of humour, joking and laughing at small matters. All the same, most prefer when he doesn't say anything; his voice is a rasping, wretched hiss, his laughter the sound of stones being ground together (Laugh: "Chraaah hra hra!").
Ship: Marine Vessel
Ship Flag: Seagull and Wrench
Devil Fruit: Doku Doku no Mi
Type: Paramecia
Effect: Allows the user to produce and control poison of various sorts, as well as granting an immunity to poison.
Special AbilitiesToki no Tsurugi - A swordstyle developed over time by combining multiple different swordstyles using different swords from different time periods. It is extremely versatile and unpredictable, as the individual styles can be combined to form unusual cross-disciplinary techniques.
Cyborg - Having had most of his body destroyed, Kalamity has been turned into a government cyborg. His entire head (sans lower jaw), neck, and chest are all protected by a durable composite allow that will stop most blades and lessen damage from impacts. His arm and legs have some metal plating, protecting the larger, more vulnerable areas. Many of his internal organs have been replaced, such as his lungs and digestive tract. As such he does not need to eat and can hold his breath for a very long time. In exchange for his power, however, he has to recharge his power source every so often. If he cannot reach a ship or marine base with the facilities he requires, he can run for short spans (hours) at a time on champaign.
Learned TechniquesGilgamesh - Using his doku doku powers, Kalamity creates four arms out of pitch-black poison on the right side of his body, protruding from the stump of his missing arm. The toxin used for this causes paralyzing numbness in any area it enters the body, but cannot be absorbed directly through the skin; it must enter through wounds.
The Epic of Gilgamesh - An improved version of Gilgamesh using the same poison, Kalamity extends the length of his arms by double. Additionally, he forms a thin coating of the poison over his entire body, and uses the poison to double the length of his existing arm and good leg as well. Because he is not actually adding any mass to his frame, only length, he looks incredibly fragile and spindly in this form.
Unraveller - A dense, cloying white mist begins to roll from Kalamity's ruined mouth. It very rapidly spreads and fills a large area, giving it a septic smell like slow death. This is a fast acting neurotoxin that will affect anyone who breathes it in, clouding their mind with delusions and raising their pulse, causing adrenaline to flood their bodies. While it can make people faster and stronger, it also makes them extremely fearful and jittery, their shaking and distraction usually removing any benefit the adrenaline might give them.
Mask of Red Death - Small crimson droplets of poison begin to appear on Kalamity's body, or build up inside of his mouth. All at once these droplets form extremely sharp points, firing off in whatever direction they're aimed, piercing through any living thing in their path. Once inside a victim, the poison will immediately begin causing problems with the victim's body, such as giving them a fever, cramps, chills, and fatigue.
Walk of Death - Kalamity seems to vomit, dozens of thin tendrils of thick, translucent red poison exploding out of his mouth. These poisonous strands lash out all over the place, forming intricate, winding paths in a large network around Kalamity and his foes. Contact with the poison causes a stinging, itching, burning rash instantly, but no other real damage. More importantly, if Kalamity is standing on any of these strands he can pull himself around along the poison at extreme speeds, seeming to "surf" along the tendrils.
Nitrocodone - Kalamity has learned how to produce a thin, pale-blue poison that deadens pain receptors in the human body. He can inject this into wounded and injured allies, allowing them to fight in spite of sustaining severe damage. This does not heal the damage in any way, however, and can often lead to worse injuries being sustained.
The Rapture - An insidiously nasty toxin, this thin, vibrant red poison looks almost like strawberry syrup. If this poison comes into contact with the eyes, mouth, or open wounds, this poison almost instantly begins to work at the victim's brain, causing an intense feeling of pleasure so powerful it can be incapacitating. As the poison overloads the brain's pleasure receptors, the body will begin to experience violent seizures, tearing muscles and causing all manner of circulatory problems. Victims who suffer this effect too long can become 'addicted', and will suffer violent withdrawls when the effect ends, combined with the pain caused by the seizing.
What Lurks Beneath - By coating his weapons or body parts with a thin layer of any of his poisons, Kalamity can add them to any of his other attacks.
Toki no Tsurugi: Snows of Yesteryear - A technique made for use with Bloodkindle. Jabbing the air with great speed a number of times in a short instant, Kalamity fires a volley of sharp, piercing pressure blasts. They leave triangular wounds which bleed profusely, causing the victim to feel cold with blood-loss.
Toki no Tsurugi: Faulty Tower - A technique made for use with Great Earth-Shaker. Slamming the ground with this sword, a massive fissue breaks upon and spreads towards his enemy. Moments after the crack opens, massive shards of rock explode up from the ground along the line, causing damage to anything over it.
Toki no Tsurugi: Cruel Cruel Moon - A technique made for use with Light and Moon. Spinning the double-bladed sword around with extreme speed, it becomes a blur of dazzling light. Dozens of tiny air-blades spiral out from the swords edge, dancing in erratic and unpredictable paths through the air. In addition to their wild, irregular flight paths that cover a large area, the projectiles also sparkle brilliantly and are hard to follow with the eye.
Toki no Tsurugi: A Time To Kill - A technique made for use with Matsuri. Swinging the sword in a broad, sweeping arc, Kalamity creates a wide, crescent shaped, expanding white shockwave that extends a short distance away. The shockwave does very little damage to anything it hits, but rather passes through and around everything, leaving everything touched by it wrapped in sticky, strong webbing anchored to anything else it hit.
Toki no Tsurugi: Channel Firing - Useable with any of his swords. Swinging any sword extremely fast, Kalamity can cut through objects and foes at a distance. This does not appear as a standard shockwave, but rather simply a line of cutting that extends some ways beyond the reach of his blades. The nature and type of the ranged slash depends on the sword used.
Weapons/ItemsGreat World-ShakerBloodkindleLight and MoonMatsuriGoalsTo reclaim all the pasts stolen from others in the world.
Thu Sep 30, 2010 8:36 am
